Geneva Spur - new track

[Tekhed66]

Hi all

I just thought I'd post a new track and see how it goes...

This is the first guitar track I've ever recorded... usually I post instrumental synth/electronica as keys are my first instrument but I'd grown a bit tired of the same-old, same-old and dusted off my guitars... recording them was definitely trial and error so please excuse any recording/playing errors you might hear (apart from that, I'm prety average at guitar!) ... there's a bit of synth in it but it's mostly guitar.

Anyway, please have a listen and I hope that you like the track

cheers!

 

[Bulls Hit]

You got some nice melodies going on here. Some of the snare hits sound like they're being doubled with a tom something and it's creating a kind of flam effect which is a bit distracting. I'm not a fan of that chorus/flange effect on the intro as it's making the pitch wobble around too much. OTOH the effect on the outro guitar is brilliant, the glassiness over the synth sounds great. Nice job

 

[Tekhed66]

You got some nice melodies going on here. Some of the snare hits sound like they're being doubled with a tom something and it's creating a kind of flam effect which is a bit distracting. I'm not a fan of that chorus/flange effect on the intro as it's making the pitch wobble around too much. OTOH the effect on the outro guitar is brilliant, the glassiness over the synth sounds great. Nice job

Hi
Thanks for your comments... I'll have another listen to the drum track and try to sort out that flam... you listen to a piece over and over and any errors just end up sounding 'normal' if you know what I mean.

The out of tune intro is exactly that... it's not chorused or flanged... I used an 'old cassette' plugin to replicate a badly performing tape deck and old cassette... the intro is low-fi and the tuning drifts but once the main piece kicks in, it's back to full hi-fi and 100% in tune... that was the idea anyway (ha!?!)

I'm pretty happy with the ending too... in fact, the bit from the last refrain (where the mellotron strings kick in) to the end of the outtro works well for me but I'm having difficulty making the rest of the mix sound like that... remix! remix! remix! ....grrrrr

cheers

 

[greatshotpilot]

I liked this a lot. I though the screwed up sounding vibrato intro was quite nice - I might dial down the effect just a TINY bit, but seasick Mac DeMarco/Tame Impala stuff is right up my alley.

 

[Tekhed66]

I liked this a lot. I though the screwed up sounding vibrato intro was quite nice - I might dial down the effect just a TINY bit, but seasick Mac DeMarco/Tame Impala stuff is right up my alley.

Ha! Tame Impala and I come from the same city.... there must be something in the water ;-)

Glad you liked the track ... and yes I suppose the cassette effect IS a bit strong...

 

[Jyemz]

This is nice, bright and breezy. I get what you were going for on the intro, something akin to the start of Wish You Were Here with Gilmour's guitar coming out of an old radio. It might be a tad strong though. Like the trem guitar melodies and that's a really nice breakdown. Good stuff, enjoyed it.

 

[Tekhed66]

This is nice, bright and breezy. I get what you were going for on the intro, something akin to the start of Wish You Were Here with Gilmour's guitar coming out of an old radio. It might be a tad strong though. Like the trem guitar melodies and that's a really nice breakdown. Good stuff, enjoyed it.

Hi Jyemz

Well you're sort of correct... I wasn't using WYWH as a templete though... I was trying different ways to start the track (eg. fade in) but along the way, I came across a free tape effect VST and suddenly knew how I was going to start ... I just wanted to contrast the intro to the main body of the piece and thought the tape effect would do nicely (and I have to admit, I'm a huge Floyd fan and my work has NEVER EVER been referenced to or spoken about in the same breath as Pink Floyd..... sigh).

You're the second review to say it's a bit overdone and I agree though the first batch of mixes weren't so over the top... I just kept bumping up the effect a little more each remix... you know how it goes... I'll just push it up a tiiiiiny bit more this time... eventually it wound up where it is so i've definitely overshot the mark.

cheers

 

[TripleM]

I thought the guitar in the intro was much too drenched in effects. Chorus/flange/delay/whatever. It washed it out quite a bit. It got really soupy.

The other guitar parts were better. There was a lead-ish guitar that had quite a bit of low end and low midrange. There was another very clean guitar playing the higher end that I wish didn't have any effects except maybe a little reverb.

The bass sounded OK. It was a little back in the mix and got covered up by some of the guitar parts with stronger low end.

Drums were OK. You could tell they were programmed. Some of the cymbals got kind of swirly - which is probably being caused by SoundCloud.

 

[Tekhed66]

I thought the guitar in the intro was much too drenched in effects. Chorus/flange/delay/whatever. It washed it out quite a bit. It got really soupy.

The other guitar parts were better. There was a lead-ish guitar that had quite a bit of low end and low midrange. There was another very clean guitar playing the higher end that I wish didn't have any effects except maybe a little reverb.

The bass sounded OK. It was a little back in the mix and got covered up by some of the guitar parts with stronger low end.

Drums were OK. You could tell they were programmed. Some of the cymbals got kind of swirly - which is probably being caused by SoundCloud.

Yep... all noted:

I thought the guitar in the intro was much too drenched in effects. Chorus/flange/delay/whatever. It washed it out quite a bit. It got really soupy.

Not chorus or flange... tape effect... see previous comments.

The bass sounded OK. It was a little back in the mix

Interesting... I was pulling this back because I thought it was too strong... maybe it was because some of the low end was coming from the guitars?

Drums were OK. You could tell they were programmed.

Guilty as charged... I applied a bit of a groove to the tempo but obviously not even close to enough.

Intersting observations and all good stuff... cheers!

 

[jimmys69]

Intro part way too much. I lost interest and almost stopped listening til the good parts came in. The rest was quite cool but the smell of the intro left me in a bad place.

Try not to manipulate pitch so much.

 

[RFR]

I would cut that warbly intro off completely. As in gone.
Obviously you have no vocals on it yet.
Curious to hear the final. I like the music bed, but have no mix comments. I only listened on my phone speaker, but it seems to translate pretty well.
Drums seem real sterile.

Just my opinion.

But....warble intro has got to go!

 

[jimmys69]

I would cut that warbly intro off completely. As in gone.
Obviously you have no vocals on it yet.
Curious to hear the final. I like the music bed, but have no mix comments. I only listened on my phone speaker, but it seems to translate pretty well.
Drums seem real sterile.

Just my opinion.

But....warble intro has got to go!

Yep. Agreed. Sorry, my ears say WTF?

 

[Tekhed66]

I would cut that warbly intro off completely. As in gone.
Obviously you have no vocals on it yet.
Curious to hear the final. I like the music bed, but have no mix comments. I only listened on my phone speaker, but it seems to translate pretty well.
Drums seem real sterile.

Just my opinion.

But....warble intro has got to go!

Warble has been toned way down... much less warbly (if that's a word) but still low-fi... and it stays!!!
Glad it translated well on a phone speaker... it sounds great on my Yamaha monitors too ;-)
Drums are stock ... I've since un-quantised/added groove and they're more human but I'm not really after authenticity or else I'd play the drums myself.
The music bed is all you get... there won't be any vocals

I havent uploaded a new version to Soundcloud yet... hopefully soon.

Thanks for listening!

 

[Tekhed66]

Intro part way too much. I lost interest and almost stopped listening til the good parts came in. The rest was quite cool but the smell of the intro left me in a bad place.

Try not to manipulate pitch so much.

Sorry for the stink but glad you hung around ... remember that you've gotta add shit to your roses if you want nice flowers.

Peace.

 

[RFR]

Ok, had another listen on some good cans. I like the song much much more. I like the way the synths and guitars interact. Sounds are good. (To my tastes anyway.)

Earlier comment on the drums still stands.

Now the intro?? Like it even less than before. I get you're trying to be artsy and creative, but it's just downright unpleasant. I feel it will turn off most listeners from the magic to come later.

I honestly feel that if the drums were done with a real drummer, recorded well, it would transform, and take to another level the goodness you got going on.

But I still hate the intro

Still want to hear it with vocals.

 

[RFR]

remember that you've gotta add shit to your roses if you want nice flowers.

I believe it's coffee grounds and crushed up egg shells.

Ps. I just now read through the other comments. All of my comments were based only on my own independent obsevations.

You doing vocals or is this to be an instrumental piece?

 

[Tekhed66]

Ok, had another listen on some good cans. I like the song much much more. I like the way the synths and guitars interact. Sounds are good. (To my tastes anyway.)

Earlier comment on the drums still stands.

Now the intro?? Like it even less than before. I get you're trying to be artsy and creative, but it's just downright unpleasant. I feel it will turn off most listeners from the magic to come later.

I honestly feel that if the drums were done with a real drummer, recorded well, it would transform, and take to another level the goodness you got going on.

But I still hate the intro

Still want to hear it with vocals.

Aarrgghh!!!! You're killing me 8-p ... ha ha ha

I am going to post the new version tonight and I'll leave the existing one onlie too so you can A/B it...

The intro is way better (I hope) ... still has the tape effect but much more reduced in its warble (though its still lo-fi) ... I think it sounds less distracting but I'm open to suggestions and to more editing.

I would love, love, LOVE to put real drums on this thing.... I air drum along to it and try to translate that into actual drum programming but I can't get the inflections right (lots of ghost hits and shuffles in my air drumming) (I am an EXCELLENT air drummer) ... I cobbled the drum track together from 3 different drum loops and then edited them further... my studio (and I use the term VERY loosely) is basically the space between the end of my bed and the wall directly in front... one day when I'm rich and powerful and take over the world, I'll build a proper rehearsal/recording room and bash away on my new drum kit.

Still holding firm... no vocals (mostly because I am worse at writing lyrics than I am at programming drums).

Stay tuned.... I will make a grand announcement on v2.0 soon.

 

[Tekhed66]

I believe it's coffee grounds and crushed up egg shells.

Ps. I just now read through the other comments. All of my comments were based only on my own independent obsevations.

You doing vocals or is this to be an instrumental piece?

Eggshells?? Are you sure??? Coffee I believe... I used to put blood 'n' bone on them or maybe some sheep poo .... pewwwwww

OK ... here we go .... version 2 is up and running ... I just hope that it's running without its shoelaces tied together...

For your listening please/displeasure:
Geneva Spur 2 by Un-Sound | Un Sound | Free Listening on SoundCloud

 

[TripleM]

Backing off the tape effect helped.

Once the song kicks in there is a clean rhythm guitar, panned right, that has maybe the same effect? It's chorus-y or something. I personally didn't care for that. It takes up a lot of space and crowds other things out.

I don't know if you did anything to the bass level. But it sounds pretty good to me now.

That lead guitar at 2:07 sounded kind of cool.

 

[Tekhed66]

Backing off the tape effect helped.

Once the song kicks in there is a clean rhythm guitar, panned right, that has maybe the same effect? It's chorus-y or something. I personally didn't care for that. It takes up a lot of space and crowds other things out.

I don't know if you did anything to the bass level. But it sounds pretty good to me now.

That lead guitar at 2:07 sounded kind of cool.

Ha! Progress at last

I agree with you re: intro tape effect.... I might back it off even more.

The acoustic is double tracked... I cleaned up the mids and bass and that may have given the acoustic more room to be heard ... I'm pretty sure that I can swap that out for a single take (not double tracked).

As for the bass ... I simplified the bass line a little bit in places (removed anything not 100% necessary) and plulled back the sub bass a bit which cleaned up the bottom end quite a bit .... nothing too clever.

Overall I like this mix much better.... it's just a straight mix - not mastered.... I had a play with some online mastering sites and the track sounds sensational ... not to blow it out of my rear or anything like that but you know what I mean ... everything just has so much more presence ... hard to believe that it's the same track.

Anyway - I think I'm about 99% there... there's probably one or two more tweaks left and then that's it ... I want to give it a rest and move onto another recording ...maybe come back to it in a few weeks with fresh ears.

Thanks again for all your feedback... I really appreciated your input